Kristina Killgrove of Vanderbilt University wants to sequence DNA extracted from ancient, lower-class Roman skeletons. She knows from isotope analysis that some of these people had immigrated to Rome from distant lands, and she thinks DNA could provide some answers to questions about their origins. “It’s an untapped data source, especially about the common people, […]

The machine guns recovered from a fighter plane that crashed in an Irish bog in 1941 were pieced together to create one working weapon, which was later fired by television presenter Dan Snow and a team from the Irish army. “That was the noise that filled the air during the Battle of Britain,” he writes. […]